Hand-held electronic games have been widely popular toys since their introduction. These games provide portable versions of favorite games previously found only in arcades or at home on a personal computer or video game system. The ease of use and the portability of hand-held electronic games provide enjoyment to a wide range of electronic game players.
Hand-held electronic pinball games are one of many popular hand-held electronic games. Advances in electronic technology have allowed these hand-held electronic pinball games to closely simulate the original stand-up pinball games, thereby allowing pinball fans to play whenever and wherever they want.
One problem with existing hand-held electronic pinball games is the inability to change the display image of the game. With stand-up pinball games, when players become tired of playing a particular machine they can simply move to another stand-up pinball game and continue playing on the new machine. However, existing hand-held electronic pinball games are not so versatile as to allow players to change the display of the game to essentially create a brand new game. If a player becomes tired of a certain game, they must either have another hand-held electronic pinball game available or stop playing. A need exists for a hand-held pinball game in which a player may change the display.
Stand-up pinball games allow a player to shake or move the pinball game, within reason, to change the path of the pinball. A “tilt” generally occurs if the stand-up pinball game is either moved too much or too violently. Another problem with existing hand-held electronic pinball games is not being able to change the path of the ball through movement of the hand-held game as can be done with stand-up pinball games. A need exists for a hand-held pinball game in which a player may change the path of the simulated pinball by tapping or nudging the housing of the game, and which includes a tilt feature to prevent over-use of the tapping feature.
Existing handheld pinball games do not have changeable displays. U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,679 to Doyle et al. discloses a hand-held pinball game having LED's that are energized to simulate a pinball and flippers and a speaker to provide pinball sounds. U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,090 to Storie et al. discloses a plunger for a hand-held electronic pinball game. U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,573 to Klitsner et al. discloses an electronic hand-held game having user manipulated controls for controlling the direction and power of a simulated launched object.
A need exists for an improved hand-held pinball game having a changeable display.